In a few hundred square feet in downtown San Jose, the Borkenhagen family is building their vision: a South Bay answer to San Francisco’s Mission district.

In March, Michael Borkenhagen opened Cafe Stritch, a restaurant/coffee house/bar in the city’s South of First (SoFA) neighborhood where monthly art walks are drawing crowds.

The opening of Cafe Stritch marks a dramatic pivot for the Borkenhagen family. Michael’s father, Steve, previously operated the white tablecloth restaurant Eulipia in the same space from 1977–2012.

“It just ran out of gas,” the elder Borkenhagen said of Eulipia. “It became irrelevant.”

By shifting gears to appeal to younger downtown residents, the Borkenhagen family’s strategy mirrors downtown San Jose’s own economic development strategy. Planners and business owners are counting on an influx of residential development projects, a growing art scene and new restaurants and bars that are springing up near downtown.

“This has always been described as kind of the art neighborhood,” Michael, 35, said. “There’s been a core group — I guess you could call them urbanites. That group is expanding, and young people are a big part of that.”

The city of San Jose is betting on cultivating “urban villages” heavy on bike lanes, walkable areas and diverse land use in its 2040 general plan. The new model is driven by the expected addition of 96,000 new people between the ages of 20–34 to the city’s population between 2007–30.

Steve describes the changes coming to San Jose as “kind of a revolution for the downtown.” In addition to his family’s own restaurant, he points to other relatively new neighbors like San Pedro Square Market, which he was involved in launching, and microbrew bar and restaurant Original Gravity Public House as other businesses contributing to critical mass.

A new crowd

Michael began working at his family’s Eulipia restaurant when he was about 13, eventually becoming the restaurant’s general manager. Now, as owner of Cafe Stritch, he hired his sister, Melissa, 30, and brother, Maxwell, 24, to help him run the new restaurant.

Michael said he wants Cafe Stritch to feel inclusive and “not pretentious.” Food prices will top out at $10, and chef David Ramsay, of nearby Myth Taverna & Lounge, consulted on the development of the menu. The items include fresh pastries, as well as small plates like artisan pizza or chicken and waffles.

The restaurant will serve breakfast all day, along with lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.

“I think we’ve broadened the appeal,” said Steve, who now works full time for his son at the restaurant. “Better food, lower prices.”

Michael is carrying one theme over from Eulipia to Cafe Stritch: jazz music.

The names for both restaurants stemmed from jazz instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who is depicted in a mural at Cafe Stritch. A stritch is a type of saxophone the artist played, and Eulipia was one of his songs.

To transition from Eulipia to Cafe Stritch, the family put in several months of work renovating the interior for purely aesthetic reasons, Michael said. He declined to say how much he spent on the reboot.

The new 100-seat restaurant is equipped with a stage area, which Steve said will host live music of all genres as many as five days a week.

Cafe Stritch debuted with a soft opening during San Jose’s Cinequest film festival, in part to establish a brand that connects with local arts groups.

He said he expects the neighborhood’s monthly SoFA First Friday events -— which feature art at local galleries and events at businesses — to draw customers to the restaurant.

That’s a twist on Eulipia, which for a time catered to a theater crowd with $20–$30 dinners.